Rest of World is an American nonprofit publication covering technology stories outside western countries.[1][2][3] Launched in 2020 by Sophie Schmidt, Rest of World focuses on the impact of technology in "glossed over" emerging consumer markets outside the developed West.[4][5] The publication is primarily funded by the Schmidt Family Foundation.[4]
History
Rest of World was first announced in May 2019 by Sophie Schmidt, daughter of former Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, and Wendy Schmidt, as a publication about the impact of technology on the non-Western world, particularly in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. The news website is operated by Rest of World Media Inc., an American private operating foundation established in April 2019.[6] The organization's operations are funded through multiple sources, including grants from foundations such as the Schmidt Family Foundation, donations and sponsorships.[7]
Rest of World was launched in May 2020.[8] That year, Anup Kaphle, a journalist who previously worked for The Washington Post, BuzzFeed News and The Kathmandu Post, joined Rest of World as its founding executive editor.[4] As of September 2020, Rest of World had 30 employees, with about 20 being full-time staffers.[2]
Rest of World Media, Inc. is a 501(c)(3) private operating foundation established in April 2019 and incorporated in the state of Delaware as a nonprofit, charitable corporation. The foundation has one subsidiary, Rest of World Media International, LLC, formed in January 2020 and registered in Kenya as a foreign company. Its purpose is to employ editorial staff.[6]
Sophie Schmidt said in September 2020 that she would be spending $60 million on Rest of World over the next decade, with no plans to sell advertising or to use a subscription model. She said she might bring in another investor.[2]
Coverage
Schmidt said in September 2020, "There are three or four billion people who live in markets that are deemed not important enough to address, so there is just a huge gap in understanding what is going on in the rest of the world."[2] Kaphle said in November 2021, "We believe there's a significant gap in how the story of technology is told today — how many thousands of tech companies, apps and experiences with tech go unreported in Western press — so our goal is to fill that gap with compelling, immersive, and high-quality journalism."[1]
The publication won a 2024 National Magazine Award in the design category, for articles on innovative non-western companies, Chinese shopping platforms, and how AI stereotypes different nationalities.[13][14][15][16] That year, Rest of World launched an AI Elections Tracker to examine the role AI plays in elections worldwide.[17]
In January 2013, Schmidt visited North Korea with her father; she subsequently described the trip as consisting of "highly staged encounters, tightly-orchestrated viewings and what seemed like genuine human moments", and the country itself as "like The Truman Show, at country scale."[18][19] That year, she interned at SCL Group, the parent company of Cambridge Analytica – which gained notoriety from the Facebook–Cambridge Analytica data scandal.[20][3] Prior to founding Rest of World in 2019, Schmidt held international technology and policy roles across Asia, Africa, and the Middle East, including positions at Afghanistan's Moby Media Group and Xiaomi in Beijing, China.[2][21]
Schmidt has maintained that Rest of World represents her "life's project," emphasizing its mission to understand technology's impact in markets typically deemed "not important enough to address."[2] In 2024, she was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum.[22][21]
